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Anomaly Research Centre (organisation)
The Anomaly Research Centre (often shortened to the ARC) was a government organisation, prominent during the early 21st Century, founded to predict and contain the Anomalies, as well as the creatures which came through them. They covered up the Anomalies' existence and creature sightings/attacks to prevent mass panic and stop anyone interferring with either of them. History Background At some point in the new timeline, after the Anomalies' existence was discovered by the Home Office, the Anomaly Research Centre was founded to take the place of the Anomaly-investigating branch of the Home Office, and the team subsequently moved to the Anomaly Research Centre. (Episode 1.6, 2.1) At some point, the ARC interrogated Helen Cutter about her knowledge of the Anomalies and recorded the proceedings. (Episode 1.4, 3.3(ac)) Episode 1.6 When an Anomaly to the future opened in the Permian and threatened to allow creatures from the future to alter history, the ARC had a mission led by team leader Nick Cutter and Helen launched into the Permian via the Forest of Dean Anomaly, to find and contain the future Anomaly. (Episode 1.6/2.1) The original timeline's versions of Nick and Helen returned as the only survivors of the failed mission. Nick then ordered that no-one else was to go through the Anomaly again but Helen immediately broke his new rule as she left through the Anomaly. Episode 2.1 Shortly afterwards returning from the Forest of Dean, the ARC received news of a Raptor incursion at the Castle Cross Shopping Mall, and the ARC's field team were sent to investigate. The Minister contacted Oliver Leek and requested the ARC hire a Public Relations Manager to help cover up the Anomaly/creature incursions. Head of operations; James Lester immediately soured to the idea but soon decided hiring a PR guy "might not be such a bad idea after all.". At the Mall, the ARC team were able to contain the Raptors and send them back through their Anomaly just before it closed. Cutter and Connor Temple also discovered that the Anomalies produced radio interference on 87.6FM, which could allow a means of tracking them. The next day when the team returned to the ARC, Lester introduced the new PR guru; Jenny Lewis. Episode 2.2 Lester, Leek and Cutter explained to Jenny about the nature of Anomaly operation and how she would have to cover up the Anomalies and creatures by convincing people that they did not see what they actually did but Jenny was initially hesitant to believe them. Leek then escorted Jenny down to human resources to properly hire her. Some time later, Cutter proposed to Lester that they build a machine which could detect Anomalies within moments of them opening by tracking the radio interference the Anomalies caused. As Leek convinced Lester to fund the project, Cutter requested that Connor build the detector and Lester agreed but Leek was to supervise Connor. Shortly after, the ARC received reports of a possible Anomaly incursion at a skyscraper in inner London, and Cutter, Jenny and Stephen Hart went to investigate. Connor and Abby Maitland later came to help the three, and the ARC field team were able to neutralise the incursion by using the heating to force the Precambrian gases out of the building, killing the Precambrian Worms. Episode 2.3 Connor successfully built and activated an Anomaly Detection Device, but when the ARC received a report of a creature attack at Blue Sky Park, they immediately began to doubt the ADD's reliability. The ARC field team went to the park to investigate, and discovered that the creature was a Smilodon that had come to the Present years earlier. They successfully captured the Smilodon, but Oliver Leek secretly had the creature moved by his organisation to his Creature Prison. Afterwards, the ADD detected an Anomaly and Cutter and Connor went to deal with it. ''Shadow of the Jaguar Sir Charles Bairstow got Lester to send the ARC field team to Peru to rescue Sir Charles' two missing sons; Jaime and Cam, but only after Lester discovered that there was an Anomaly incursion in Peru. The Lost Island The team dealt with an incursion on Guns Island. Episode 2.4 When Lucien Hope was abducted down a sewer drain by a creature during the brief appearance of an Anomaly in the Isle of Dogs, the ARC tracked the possible creature to a canal, and captured a Future Shark but found that it wasn't the creature responsible for Lucien's disappearance. Lester had the canal scoured for any more creatures the following morning, while Nick, Connor and Abby searched another body of water for the creatures. When Abby was abducted by a Mer Creature as a result of this, Lester fired Cutter and made Stephen the new team leader, and Stephen had the canal scoured again. Cutter, Connor and later Stephen tracked the Mer Creatures to their lair in a warehouse, and managed to neutralise them and rescue Abby and Lucien. Lester subsequently had the warehouse basement sealed, and put Cutter back on the ARC team. Episode 2.5 The ARC field team went to investigate an Anomaly in Hackney, and Cutter and Stephen went through the Anomaly to rescue a little girl trapped on the other side. When the Anomaly closed before Cutter and Stephen could return with the girl, Lester made Connor and Abby the new team leaders and had the ARC keep a permanent watch on the Anomaly site in case the Anomaly reopened. Connor and Abby later investigated another Anomaly at the Lost World Adventure Park, and Cutter and Stephen returned through the Anomaly. Episode 2.6 Following the conclusive discovery that there was indeed a traitor on the ARC who was working against it, Cutter let the rest of the field team in on this revelation, and they began to plot how to uncover the traitor. When an Anomaly opened on the M25 and a Columbian Mammoth came through and went on a rampage, the ARC field team went to deal with the incursion and were able to capture the Mammoth in the back of a van. Afterwards, when Nick discovered that Stephen was still with Helen Cutter, he fired Stephen from the ARC. The Mammoth was subsequently taken back to the ARC, and Cutter and Connor formed a plan to lure the traitor into a trap. However, Leek turned the trap on the team by sending Jenny in his place as a scapegoat, and then had a Neural Clamped Future Predator attack the ARC while the field team and most of the military staff were away. After the Predator was killed by the Mammoth from the M25 incursion, Connor was able to track the signal to the Predator's Neural Clamp, and Lester and the ARC's military forces went to investigate, but found that the source of the signal was a decoy. While Lester and the military ARC staff were away, Cutter, Connor, Abby and Jenny traced Caroline Steel's mobile signal to the Creature Prison and went there to get Rex back from her. However, the four were captured by Leek at the Creature Prison and taken hostage. Episode 2.7 Lester returned to the ARC to find the field team and Jenny missing, and had a search for them and Leek launched. When Leek had a Silurian Scorpion released onto a beach, Lester called Stephen and convinced him to go to the beach to deal with the threat, and Stephen successfully captured the Scorpion. At the Creature Prison, the ARC field team were able to escape when Cutter tricked Leek into disabling the mainframe and sending his hard disk's contents to the ARC. Caroline, Jenny, Connor and Abby were able to get out of the Prison and contacted Lester, who then launched the ARC's forces to capture Leek's Creature Prison. Before the ARC's forces arrived, Stephen sacrificed himself to stop Leek's captive creatures from getting out, and after Stephen's death the entire ARC team and some of the staff including Lester attended his funeral. As the team were leaving the graveyard, Lester informed them that a new Anomaly had been detected. Extinction Event The ARC's anomaly detector detected an anomaly on Oxford Street, and Entelodons came through it and began to rampage through London. Two weeks later, the ARC team dealt with another anomaly at a gas station, which several Euparkeria emerged out of. Cutter and Connor then had a discussion about the anomalies, and they both expressed their belief that the anomalies were becoming more erratic. Cutter said that he thinks they should be sharing information with other countries to learn more about the anomalies. Afterwards, Nick Cutter, Connor Temple, and Abby Maitland were kidnapped by Nikolai Medyevin and Koshkin and taken to Tunguska, Siberia, where they found out that the Russians were also dealing with sightings of prehistoric creatures, and had formed their own research team to investigate them. Meanwhile, back at the ARC, James Lester, Jenny Lewis, and Jake Hemple began searching for the kidnapped trio. Eventually, they met Helen Cutter, who told them that she could take them to Tunguska through the anomalies. Eventually, they successfully arrived at Tunguska, and the ARC team was reunited. Afterwards, a Tyrannosaurus rex rampage resulted in Medyevin's death. Meanwhile, the car in which Jenny and Hemple were riding in was attacked and destroyed by a panicked Ankylosaurus. A pack of Troodons then arrived, and attempted to attack them, but were scared away when the car caught on fire. The team were then reunited once again, and they all returned home. Episode 3.1 One - two years after Stephen Hart's death, Lester hired Hilary Becker to protect the ARC field team against the creatures in order to avoid any more team members getting killed. When an Anomaly opened at the British Museum and a Pristichampsus came through, the ARC team went to investigate and chased the creature through Central London until it went back through the Anomaly. During the incursion, Connor and archaeologist Sarah Page worked out that the Pristichampsus had previously come through the Anomaly into Ancient Egypt, and had influenced the mythology of the demon goddess Ammut. So following the incursion, Sarah was recruited into the ARC, and she, Cutter and Connor started a project to discover what other myths and legends had been influenced by the Anomalies and the creatures which came through. Episode 3.2 Nick and Sarah started working on a Matrix to predict Anomaly appearances and locations. Nick made the first prediction and so sent Jenny, Abby and Connor to an abandoned house to investigate. Helen Cutter sent one of her Cleaner clones into the ARC to obtain some of Nick Cutter DNA however it was killed by Becker first. The team eventually discovered that a camouflaging creature was living at the house, waiting for its Anomaly to reopen which it eventually did, proving the Matrix actually worked. Episode 3.3 The team dealt with a Diictodon infestation at the West Hospital. Helen overtook the ARC building with her Cleaner Clone army and later detonated a bomb and fatally shot Nick Cutter. Connor acquired the Artifact after Helen lost it in the building. Episode 3.4 Sarah offer to start cleaning the Artifact for Connor and help find out what it was. Connor tried to continue working on the Locking Levice but Lester told him to fix the Anomaly Detector first. The team dealt with an Giganotosaurus incursion at the Airgo Freight airport with help from Danny Quinn. Episode 3.5 The team dealt with a futuristic fungus epidemic. Jenny Lewis later resigned from the ARC and Danny Quinn was officially made the new team leader. Fire and Water Danny and Lester fly to South Africa to investigate stange creature sightings. Abby, Connor, Sarah and Becker deal with a Velociraptor and Deinosuchus incursion during the Maidenhead flood. Episode 3.6 Christine discovered that the ARC had the Artifact and told the Minister, who dismissed Lester from his position and put Christine in the head position. After insulting the Minister, Lester position was restored and Christine had to go see the former. Episode 3.7 The team dealt with a Dracorex incursion and a Medieval knight venturing around London. Episode 3.8 The team dealt with a Megopteran incursion at a race circuit. Later after Abby's brother travelled to the future through the race circuit Anomaly, the team went on a rescue mission (without backup) and retrieved him. Episode 3.9 The team dealt with an Embolotherium incursion near a quadbike/dirt-buggy campsite. Episode 3.10 The team prepared to travel to the future via the race circuit Anomaly but Johnson's Anomaly reopened so Becker and Sarah left to deal with the Megopteran incursion there. Abby, Danny and Connor went to the future and found Helen in a futuristic ARC building. She escaped through a Cretaceous Anomaly but was closely followed by the trio. Danny and Helen got to Site 333 in the Great Rift Valley in the Pliocene where she was killed by a raptor. Danny was marroned in Africa and Connor and Abby were trapped in the Cretaceous. Between Series 3 and Series 4 Four missions were sent out from the ARC, lead by Captain Becker, to find Connor, Abby and Danny after they headed into the future to stop Helen from wiping out Humanity. The missions ultimately failed as they were unable to find the trio and Sarah was killed during the final mission. After this, the Minister suspended the ARC operation until further notice. Approximately three months later, a Stegosaurus came through an Anomaly and rampaged in the members bar at the House of Commons. The Minister came to regret suspending the ARC and so arranged a public/private partnership with Prospero Industries investor; Philip Burton. Prospero bought partial ownership of the operation and would help run/fiance it. The Minister believed the partnership would be beneficial for the ARC which had remained government operated until that point. The ARC started a month long vetting procedure on potential new team members. ( , , Episode 4.1) An Interview was arranged at a Prospero building that the ARC had moved into. Existing employees including Lester and Becker were questioned about the closure of the ARC and if they wanted their old positions back which they accepted. Potential new employees like Matt Anderson and Jess Parker were interviewed about vacant positions at the ARC, and were hired some time later. The ARC operation was still moving to the new building (also called the ARC). At that point, Jess and the Mammoth were the only ones in the building. Becker arrived and Jess showed him around, she explained how Burton had invested in the ARC and that Lester was required to keep both the Minister and Burton "happy" about the ARC operations. Becker questioned Matt's position as the new team leader. Matt asked for the Special Forces solders to stop wearing black and use civilian clothes to be less conspicuous. ( ) Matt watched an introductory video by Philip and Jess then introduced herself to him. Becker met with Matt but the captain was insistent that his soldiers should were black as it promotes unity, authority and public confidence in the field. Becker presumably won as the Special Forces continued wearing back. Matt designed and arranged for high tech tasers to be supplied to and used by the ARC team. ( ) The ARC officially pronounced Danny, Abby and Connor; missing, presumed deceased. Becker found out that tasers had been ordered and confronted Matt. He was upset about using non-lethal weapons, believing that they were insufficient to deal with the deadly creatures. Matt told him to just give the new weapons a chance, saying that he might be pleasantly surprised. Matt then arranged for all of the staff to meet in the main room and he properly introduced himself. He rejected Abby, Connor and Danny's status believing they were still alive and he would not give up on them. Lester noticed the meeting and was impressed. The new team dealt with an Iguanodon incursion at a Beauty School. Episode 4.1 One year after the closure and eight months after the ARC's revival, Philip had dinner with the Minister who convince the former to invest another half-billion pounds into the Anomaly operation. The Electro Muscular Disruptor Devices arrived and were place in the armoury. Abby and Connor finally made their way back to the present day from the Cretaceous. The new ARC team arrived and greeted them before dealing with a Spinosaurus incursion. Back at the ARC, Abby and Connor were debriefed and taken off the team as they did not have a military background. Episode 4.2 Abby and Connor were interviewed about their time in the Cretaceous. Abby was made the menagerie manager. After Connor found Kaprosuchus near the Docks the ARC team arrived and dealt with it. Connor was later put back on the team, as he was hired before the military background rule was enforced. Episode 4.3 The Abby, Becker and Matt dealt with a Tree Creeper incursion in and around the Cooper Street theatre. Episode 4.4 The Connor, Matt and Becker dealt with a Therocephalian pack incursion at a School. Episode 4.5 While Becker was on leave from his Therocephalian injuries, Matt, Abby and Connor dealt with Labyrinthodont incursion near Witchfield Cove. Matt later left to rescue Emily from Ethan Dobrowski. Episode 4.6 Matt, Abby, Emily and Connor travelled to a Stately home to deal with an Anomaly incursion but met up with ex-ARC member; Jenny Lewis. The next day they dealt with some Hyaenodon. Elsewhere Becker monitored and staked-out near Ethan's hideout. Eventually he ventured into the flat and got caught holding a booby trap bomb but fortunately Jess investigated and helped saved him. Eye Strain Matt, Abby and Connor dealt with a Pterosaur near London's South Bank next to Big Ben. Connor and Abby covered up the incident by telling a news reporter that it was a hoax terrorist attack. Picture This! The team arrived at an art gallery to deal with a Tyrannosaurus rex. They split up into teams to search for it with Abby and Connor going one way and Becker and Jess searching elsewhere. The latter team found the Anomaly and sent the dinosaur back through. Episode 4.7 The team dealt with a Terror Bird incursion in a disused prison. Danny Quinn finally made his way back to the present after spending a year in the birds time period. He unintentionally got Ethan (who was really his brother: Patrick Quinn) captured. The ARC interviewed Patrick but he escaped back to the prison. He travelled to the Pliocene and Danny followed him but first warned Matt that Philip knew Helen. Emily travelled back to the Victorian era. Episode 5.1 The team dealt with a giant burrowing insect incursion. Episode 5.2 Matt, Connor and Abby travelled to the North Sea in the submarine HMS Gartside to deal with an Anomaly there. Episode 5.3 At an Art Museum, Abby, Matt and Becker sent a Raptor back through an Anomaly but realised it lead to the Victorian era not the Cretaceous. Matt travelled through and brough the Raptor and Emily back to the present. Episode 5.4 After Connor created the First Man-made Anomaly for Prospero, thousands of futuristic beetles spewed into the ARC building causing lock-down. Connor recalibrated his Anomaly which sent out a gamma ray killing all of the beetles. The lock-down was taken down once Philip learnt the beetles were destroyed and Jess was taken to go get medical help from her insect bite. Connor later checked the ARC's computer logs and learnt that Philip had in fact tried to incinerate the building but the beetles had chewed through the wiring. Connor later arrived at the Prospero facility where New Dawn was taking place and checked the computer terminals and to his horror, realizes that Philip had in fact had links with Helen Cutter. Episode 5.5 The team informed Lester that Philip was trying to manipulate the Anomalies but they left to deal with a Tyrannosaurus rex incursion. Later on Anomalies started opening all over the world for Convergence so the ARC dispatched as many members as possible to deal with the UK Anomalies. Connor, Emily and Matt went to the Prospero facility to stop New Dawn, but they could not stop the giant man-made Anomaly from opening and Connor fell through it. Episode 5.6 Matt and Abby travelled to the desolate future through the New Dawn Anomaly and rescued Connor from mutated Future Predators. Back at the ARC, two - five mutated Predators entered the present through the first man-made Anomaly and they attacked Jess and Lester. The rest of the team arrived and dispatched the Predators. Connor then transported his Anomaly to the facility and merged it with the New Dawn one causing both to close presumably averting the Sterile Earth Future. The Minister called Lester and informed him that a train had gone missing from King's Cross Station, and that an Anomaly may be there. At that time, the Anomaly Detection Device was still without power so the team headed out to the station. After Convergence After the whole Prospero Industries/Convergene fiasco and a temporary lull in Anomaly activity; the British Government decided to keep it all a secret hoping it would all go away. When Anomalies started appearing in Canada; Connor Temple was the only one who decided to step out of line to visit Vancouver.Anomaly Research Centre:Exclusives/Tim Haines Questions about Primeval In December 2011 - January 2012, Connor travelled to Vancouver, to get an Anomaly device, belonging to the ARC from an alternate future, back from Evan Cross and was successful in retrieving the device. Connor warned Evan about tampering with the Anomalies and creatures before leaving. ( ) At some point post July 2012, an ARC field team led by Connor dealt with an Albertosaurus rampaging through London, and sent it back through an Anomaly. When the Albertosaurus took new team member Kieran Coles through with it, Connor went through the Anomaly after Kieran. He eventually found the newbie but they were both witheld by Project Magnet and had their new EMDs confiscated. Connor and Kieran were eventually, after approximately ninety minutes - two hours, allowed to find their way back from the other side of the Anomaly to their time and place. ( ) Alternate timeline In an alternate timeline, Mac Rendell joined the ARC at some point and became a soldier for them. He travelled back in time to 2006 Vancouver, where he saved Evan Cross from an Albertosaurus, but was killed himself in the process. ( ) Evan subsequently froze his body and hid the Anomaly timer that Mac had with him. ( , , , ) Personnel Current Former *In the new timeline created during the second mission into the Permian, Captain Tom Ryan presumably moved from the Home Office to the Anomaly Research Centre with the rest of the team. However the post-timeline versions of Ryan, two soldiers, Nick and Helen Cutter never returned from the Permian so Ryan's ARC status has never been confirmed. Rules Known Anomaly Research Centre rules were: *All staff had to adhere to the Health and Safety guidelines. (Episode 3.5, 3.10) *Due to the use of the Official Secrets Act, all staff had to keep the Anomaly operation a secret. Otherwise they were committing treason. (confirmed Episode 5.1, ) *After the ARC's four month suspension; new rules were put in place by James Lester (Series 4 onwards): **No staff members were allowed to go through any Anomalies, including search parties or expeditions. **All staff had to have a military background to be able to work for the ARC, unless they were hired before the rule was put in place. Salary The exact salary for different positions at the ARC was never known. *One time, Connor stated to Abby, she would be amazed how much Lester got paid. (Episode 2.6) *Danny once asked Lester how much being the new team leader would pay; Lester replied "''Next to nothing", which Danny thought was fair. (Episode 3.5) *After a temporary suspension, Connor asked Lester for a pay rise but was told not to push his luck. (Episode 4.2) *Connor later claimed he was an "overpaid button pusher" but then said "forget the overpaid part". (Episode 4.3) *Jess once made a statement that it would take Becker 200 years to pay for a destroyed artpiece worth £8,000,000. Assuming Jess' comment is accurate, his annual salary would be £40,000 minimum. (Picture This!) Clothing and uniforms The Anomaly Research Centre staff were expected to wear appropriate clothing and footwear for their jobs (and trousers (Episode 3.5)). When staff lost or wrecked their clothes, the ARC provided blue shirts for them. (Episode 4.2) There were white hazmat suits for toxic conditions and large winter jackets available if freezing temperatures had to be endured. (Episode 3.5) When civilians were attacked by creatures, and lost their clothes, the ARC loaned them a blanket. (Episode 3.9) While the ARC had no uniforms for the field team, the Special Forces that worked for the ARC, always had black uniforms. Later, in the near future, the field agents got jackets to identify themselves. ( ) Blue Shirts.jpg ARC Blankets.png|An ARC blanket Special Forces.png|Special Forces all-black uniforms Logos Technology and devices owned and used *Anomaly Detection Device (Episode 2.3 onwards) *Remotely Operated Vehicle prototype (Episode 2.5) *The Matrix (Episode 3.2 - 3.3) *Anomaly Locking Mechanism (Episode 3.3, 3.4 onwards) *The Aritfact (Episode 3.3 - 3.6, 3.6 - 3.9) *Calibrated Laser Refractor (Episode 3.8 onwards) *Bio-tag Identifiers ( onwards) *Black boxes ( onwards) *Electro Muscular Disruption Weapon (Episode 4.1 onwards) *Bio-scan (Episode 4.3 onwards) *Anomaly Dating Calculator (Episode 4.7 onwards) *Anomaly timer (alternate timeline ( , )) Appearances Canonical *Episode 1.6 (first appearance, not named) *Episode 2.1 (official introduction) *Episode 2.2 *Episode 2.3 *''Shadow of the Jaguar'' *''The Lost Island'' *Episode 2.4 *Episode 2.5 *Episode 2.6 *Episode 2.7 *''Extinction Event'' *''Primeval Evolved'' Intro *Episode 3.1 *''Primeval Evolved'' Week 1 *Episode 3.2 *''Primeval Evolved'' Week 2 *Episode 3.3 *''Primeval Evolved'' Week 3 *Episode 3.4 *''Primeval Evolved'' Week 4 *Episode 3.5 *''Primeval Evolved'' Week 5 *''Fire and Water'' *Episode 3.6 *''Primeval Evolved'' Week 6 *Episode 3.7 *''Primeval Evolved'' Week 7 *Episode 3.8 *''Primeval Evolved'' Week 8 *Episode 3.9 *''Primeval Evolved'' Week 9 *Episode 3.10 *''Primeval Evolved'' Week 10 * * * * * *Episode 4.1 *Episode 4.2 *Episode 4.3 *Episode 4.4 *Episode 4.5 *Episode 4.6 *Eye Strain *Picture This! *Episode 4.7 *Episode 5.1 *Episode 5.2 *Episode 5.3 *Episode 5.4 *Episode 5.5 *Episode 5.6 (last appearance as reccuring) * * (flashback, logo) * (logo only) * (logo only) * * Non-Canonical *''The Lost Predator'' (not named) *''Fight for Survival'' Trivia *It was never specified exactly when the Anomaly Research Centre was set up, though it was sometime between the first Forest of Dean incursion (Episode 1.1) and the second incursion (Episode 1.6). It was likely after the new timeline version of the meeting in Episode 1.3 in which Lester and other government officials were discussing what the official policy for dealing with the Anomaly threat would be. *The ARC's full name, Anomaly Research Centre, has only been spoken three times, in Episode 2.1, 3.1 and The Sound of Thunder: Part 1, and it has only been seen onscreen twice, in Episode 2.1 and 4.1 (excluding writing on the logos). *Despite making a military background a requirement for staff, from Series 4 onwards, Emily Merchant joined the ARC team as a non essential field agent, even though she apparently had no military background. *In Episode 5.5, Lester speculated that the numerous worldwide Anomaly incursions caused by Convergence would result in the Anomalies becoming public knowledge. However, it was shown in Primeval: New World that the public was still unaware of the Anomalies. Some fans have made several theories regarding this, including that New World may take place in an alternate timeline to Series 5 of the original show, that New World may take place some time before Convergence occurred, or that it may have been that while Anomalies became public knowledge in the countries Convergence affected heavily such as the UK, in others such as Canada they did not. In an interview with Tim Haines conducted by the Anomaly Research Centre, Haines states that after Convergence occurred, the UK government decided to keep it secret in the hopes that memories of the event would be forgotten. References See also *Anomaly Research Centre (first building) *Anomaly Research Centre (second building) *Future Anomaly Research Centre Category:Featured Articles Category:Organisations